OPPOSITION TO THE TREATY:RATIFICATION OF the Lisbon Treaty would lead to wholesale privatisation of education and health services, a group campaigning for a No vote has claimed.
The Campaign against the EU Constitution yesterday challenged Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin and trade union leaders David Begg and Blair Horan to stand over the claim that Ireland would retain a veto on trade in health and education.
Campaign spokesman Brendan Young said it was wrong to suggest the Charter of Fundamental Rights would lead to more rights.
"We are of the opinion, supported by legal advice, that there is no truth in these claims."
Mr Young and Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party both referred to Article 188c of the treaty. They claimed it would remove the veto on the World Trade Organisation agreements in health, education and social services in all but exceptional, undefined circumstances.
Mr Higgins said: "Article 188c leaves us in no doubt. There are only three weeks left to the referendum. At the forum [on Europe] last week we showed conclusively that the veto was gone. Yet the Minster for Europe [Dick Roche] still baldly stated afterwards that the veto still stands."
The Campaign against the EU Constitution was first set up in 2004, and was relaunched when it became clear that a referendum would be held on the Lisbon Treaty.
Mr Young said it had retained the name because the group believed the treaty was the constitution in all but name, save for a few minor cosmetic changes.
Members of the group yesterday quoted comments from former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing that the constitution and treaty were almost identical.
Another member, former Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna, said the constitution ran to 67,800 words and the treaty ran to 75,000 though it had been presented as a much shorter document.
The group is campaigning for a No vote on five main grounds:
• that the treaty would further militarise the EU;
• that it put big business before people;
• that it would erode democracy by changing the voting system in favour of bigger countries;
t• hat it offered nothing on climate change;
• and that it would make life more difficult for developing countries.
Sinn Féin's Daithí Doolan said the EU under Lisbon would result in more public-private partnerships and worse public services. "A total of 105 powers are being transferred to Brussels."
The campaign is an alliance involving 13 organisations and individuals opposed to the Lisbon Treaty.
They comprise People Before Profit; Sinn Féin; the Socialist Party; the Workers' Party; the Socialist Workers' Party; Peace and Neutrality Alliance; Communist Party of Ireland; Eirigí; People's Movement; Workers' Action Group, Crumlin; Irish Anti-War Movement; the Irish Republican Socialist Party; and the Irish Socialist Network.
